Improvement in boots and shoes



\X/iiqesses.

D. H. MURPHY. Boots and Shoes.

No. 198,249. Patented Dec. 18,1877.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIoE.

DANIEL H. MURPHY, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT lN BOOTS AND SHOES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 198,249, dated December 18, 1877; application filed November 16, 1877.

To all-whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DANIEL H. MURPHY, of Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Hi gh-Out Shoes, of which the following is a specification This invention has for its object the production of a high-out shoe without a back seam below a line drawn horizontally at or near the center of the ankle, thereby improving the durability of the shoe and its appearance, and cheapening its cost; for, in the shaping of the blank to constitute the two quarters, it is unnecessary to remove any of the material (leather or other material) from which the quarters are made.

The upward spring of the quarter at the heel is made by spreading the top of the blank where it is slit, and the upward taper from the ankle to fit the leg is made by stitching a filling-piece into the slit portion.

Figure 1 represents the blank constituting the two quarters of my improved shoe. Fig. 2 represents the blank folded on the line w 00, after being slit, as in Fig. 1; Fig. 3, the filling-piece to be used with the blank, Fig. 1. Fig. 4 represents the outline that the heel end of a completed shoe must possess, and to approximate the curves of which at the right without waste of stock is the aim of this invention.

In all first-class high-top shoes it is necessary that the quarter at the heel (viewing the shoe from the side) presents, substantially, the outline in Fig. 4, viz: an outer curved portion, a, for the reception of the heel; an inner curve, 11, to fit at the ankle; and an enlarged or backwardly-tapering leg portion, 0, to fit the taper of the leg.

To make a shoe possessing these requisites of shape without a seam belowa horizontal line drawn through the center of the ankle, I take a piece of leather or other material commonly used for shoes, and shape it substantially as shown at d by the full lines bounding Fig. 1; and, commencing at the top 0, I slit such piece along the line f g, terminating the slit at the point h, which'is substantially on a horizontal line or a little above the center of the ankle, leaving whole the portion iof the quarter from such point h downward. The dotted line at w forms the extreme back portion of the shoe when the blank d is folded and the portions j are stitched to the vamp. The blank cut in this way and folded on this line aas would appear as in Fig. 2, wherein it will be noticed that the portion k projects backward, and its edge assumes the position which it is necessary that the upper rear portion of the quarter occupy in a properly-shaped shoe; but it will be noticed that a gap is left in such quarter at one side. Now, to fill up this gap between the edges of k and the edge I, I insert a fillingpiece of leather or other material, shaped as at m, Fig. 3, it, when stitched in place, completing the two quarters and shaping it.

The edge 1, formed by cutting the slit f g h, may, if desired, before the piece m is inserted, be cut ornamentally.

In this my shoe none of the material constituting the two quarters is necessarily cut and removed from the blank; and to impart the necessary fullness to the blank constituting the two quarters at top and bottom to fit the leg and heel, it is necessary only to cut a single slit and add a piece in such slit.

I denominate the curved line a b c at the right-hand side of Fig. 4 the line of curvature of the back of the shoe; and, viewing Fig. 1, it will be noticed that the slit f 9 corresponds substantially with the curves of the portion 0 b.

I claim- As an improved article of manufacture, a high-cut shoe formed from the blank d, having a curved slit extended downward from the top to the point h, located substantially as described with reference to the ankle, and of a fillingpiece stitched into the slit to fill out the leg of the two quarters, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

DANIEL H. MURPHY.

Witnesses:

G. W. GREGORY, S. B. KIDDER. 

